Gulf starts at Sheikh Adi-2 25/05/2012
Iraq-focused oil explorer Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) has begun drilling at the Sheikh Adi-2 well in the Sheikh Adi block.
Shareholders in Bezant Resources (BZT) decide tomorrow on granting an option to mining group Gold Fields to buy its Mankyan gold and copper project. If the deal agreed earlier this month goes through, Goldfields will pay AIM-quoted Bezant $7 million immediately and will then have an option to pay the remaining $63 million by January 2013 to gain control of Mankyan in the Philippines, holding an estimated three billion lbs of copper and four million oz of gold.
That timetable ties in with Gold Fields' schedule for tying up a nearby Philippines project for $340 million. If Gold Fields exercises its option, Bezant, headed by executive chairman Gerry Nealon, hopes to return a 'significant portion' of the proceeds to shareholders, says technical director Bernard Olivier, while deploying some of it to develop its promising Eureka copper project in Argentina.
Olivier suggests it will cost at least '$1.2 billion up-front' to take Mankayan to production. He compares the Gold Fields option terms with Bezant's initial Mankyan purchase price of $500,000 and 6.6 million shares.
Bezant raised £4.75 million at 50p earlier this year to help fund development at Eureka. Now the shares, which have traded between 73.5p and 25.75p over the past 12 months, change hands at 31.25p, up 3.38p today, where they value the company at £20.3 million and offer some punting potential.
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Iraq-focused oil explorer Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) has begun drilling at the Sheikh Adi-2 well in the Sheikh Adi block.
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